Those Silly Abbreviations…

The often unnecessary and sometimes exasperating use of abbreviations and acronyms have become a staple of our communication diets. They have slipped into everyday use in modern day communication. Even though abbreviations or shortened form of words or phrases are sometimes required in writing or typing, especially when taking lengthy notes or in using the short message service, many of us take its usage too far. Nowadays, a good percentage of young adults and even older people have caught the bug of excessively using abbreviations in written communication. It has assumed a worrying dimension as it is succeeding in polluting the English language, as well as encouraging growing laziness in young adults in particular.

The use of abridged forms of words is understandable especially in sending text messages, chats or in social media communication as it is usually employed to save time or in order to make judicious use of available space in a situation where one is limited to a certain number of characters. Nevertheless, in recent times even when people have ample time and space to communicate effectively, they would rather opt for frivolous acronyms than write or type intelligibly. A typical example is the commonly used “HBD” an acronym for “Happy Birthday.” How difficult is it really to wish a person a happy birthday by spelling out the words properly considering the fact that birthdays are only once in a year and oftentimes we aren’t even likely to see the celebrant that day or get them a gift. This may sound trivial but when we use constricted form of words or phrases, more often than not it drastically waters down the effect of our message. Personally, I appreciate people that go out of their way to type “Happy Birthday” in full compared to those who send “HBD” to me on my birthday because it comes across as more deliberate and thoughtful however strange that may sound.

The same goes for congratulatory or goodwill messages like “Happy Wedding Anniversary” which many of us would rather send as “HWA.” Some even type “Happy Children’s Day” as “HCD”, which I consider to be rather inappropriate as it is a message generally aimed at celebrating children all over the globe! Now, let’s analyse this together; How for instance is my six year old niece (not to talk of younger children) who can now read and write well supposed to interpret “HCD” as “Happy Children’s Day” even though my message is directed at her? Beyond that, some compressed words which are employed in communicating with the intention to save time actually defeat that purpose as they contain almost the same number of alphabets as the original word. For example; the use of “Kk” instead of “Ok” still beats me till this moment because they both have two alphabets! The use of “K” instead of “Ok” hardly suffices too as the difference is just one alphabet!

In the same vein, the substitute version of some words make little or no sense and at best project the writer as disorganized and incautious and at worst a semi-literate. The words in this category include; “Fenks” or “10ks” instead of “Thanks”, “L8er” in place of “Later”, “Grit” (which has an entirely different meaning) for “Greet” and the letter “C” for “See.” It’s even worse when these coined words are used by full grown adults who one would expect to have outgrown the carefree attitude that is almost always synonymous with teenagers and very young adults. These days even official emails and memoranda are not spared from the onslaught of the sms language. Many job seekers have lost the chance to be gainfully employed as a result of the unforgivable sin of using too many abbreviations in place of correctly spelled words in their application. The sad part is that they may be unaware of the reason why they were dropped as potential employees given that they were very qualified for the position advertised, and may continue to make the same mistake over and over again.

The intention of this piece is not to deride the use of abbreviations altogether as they surely come in handy in our daily communication lives. However, a good number of people do not know when to draw the line. An elderly person may consider it rude when a younger person chats with them in sms language. Even I get irritated when someone initiates a chat with “Gm” which is supposed to translate as “Good morning” or when I read sentences like “Ow r u 2dy, r u goin 2 c d man ds 9t?” which literally translates to “How are you today, are you going to see the man this night?” How is one supposed to take anyone that writes like this seriously? The truth is that the overuse of abbreviations portrays a person as unserious and lazy! Lazy writing or texting comes across as juvenile and show a definite lack of effort that may ultimately backfire in an increasingly competitive world.

The prevalent poor written grammar exhibited by students and graduates most especially on social media under the guise of informality and which have inadvertently filtered into our official lives is worrisome and poses a threat to the virtue of the English language. Atrocious spelling mistakes and lack of proper punctuation are consequences of a growing embrace of the use of abbreviations. This situation demands reorientation on the importance of using appropriate words in communication particularly in the light of the current challenges in our education system, as well as for the sake of posterity who must not be allowed to view this mode of communication as the status quo.

The difference between successful people and the average person more often than not is the deliberate effort they put into all they do regardless of how unimportant it may appear to the average person. It’s all in the details!

I’m guilty of abbreviating words too especially for sms. Its mainly done to reduce cost of sending 2pages when I can abbreviate and send only 1page. I’l have to reduce the use of unnecessary abbreviations.

Lolo,it has almost become difficult to read at times because i cant even interprete some abbreviations.I am also guilty of abbreviations too and especially some that really needs to be spelt out in writing eg.IJN is a abbreviation for in Jesus name, imagine that we have even caught the bug to the extent of abbreviating prayers.God help us.

it’s even been broadcasted don’t know how true that some of the abbreviations we use have entirely different meanings from what we suppose eg the popular lol for laughing out loud ,we hear it means lucifer our lord, blabla…

well I don’t accept that on the face of it because abbreviations can mean different things even though the same eg CAC can mean Corporate Affairs Commission and can also be Christ Apostolic Church.

God help us.We really need to try make some efforts when it comes to good communication skill.

thanks.

nb:
guess what I really had to consciously make an effort not to abbreviate in all what I typed above.eg (2,bcos, dat,y,abbrv,d,)are so quickly typed by me that I usually forget myself

I think some abbreviations are quite permissible e.g Lol which used to mean Lots of love before but now means Laugh out loud. It is more about knowing when it is expedient to use them and when it is not. Thanks Funmi.

Nice words once again Lolade but pls I do not believe there is any basis to abbreviate words in these recent times. I believe the genesis of abbrevating words started when SMS was introduced to the GSM service. I remember then to text other networks was N15. Sending a two page message was N30 talkless of more pages but now SMS is N4 and even as low as N1 pending network provider. So there’s nothing stopping you from sending five pages at N4 which will cost N20.

There’s no basis to even shorten words when typing in chats. What time are be saving in shortening words? After all we are fast typists with our phones. One should only abbreviate official words which are mostly nouns. Like UN, UK, US, Man u, Barca, VI, lag, ib. These are all proper to abbreviate but not articles, verbs, adjectives and other parts of speech.

Apparently. I am even more accommodating than you, hehe. I certainly can’t forget those days when sending text messages cost “an arm and a leg”. I only wish many would realise that little things like this tell a lot about their personality. Thanks as always Kunle.

Another interesting topic,your hard work and zeal are highly commendable , keep the good work up, the sky is the limit. On the topic, at hand, this is a serious matter, abbreviations have become our way of life, students have lost valuable marks in examination, because the examiner does not understand the abbreviated words. I try as much as possible not to abbreviate words because I dont want to join the bandwagon.
sometimes when i receive text messages from friends and I don’t understand, instead of asking the person, I will have to “google” it, so as not to appear as a novice.
Moreover, I find it interesting,I like to know the meaning of the
abbreviated words,some of the words can be funny, too,all the lol, bae,kmt,lwkmd etc.

I recently learnt a new one. A friend put up her hubby’s’ picture and wrote against it MCE. Well, just like one of the readers commented above, i had to consult Google. It turned out to be Man Crush Everyday! “Lo ba tan. . ” For me, i am quite indifferent about it. Like you have however rightly stated, we should know when to draw the line. I once wrote an official e-mail and i unconciously used “d’ rather than “the”. Thank goodness i read it all over before clicking on the “send” icon. What i particularly find irritating are the likes of “fenks” rather than thanks, “fink” rather than think, bae rather than babe, “wassamarra” which actually means “what is the matter” and the latest entrant into the club being “gerrarahia”!!!. If you do not express “get out of here” as that jaw breaking acronym, then you are simply not “trending”. . . Goodness! Now pardon me to react thus; OMG!!! Lwkmd. . LMAO!!!

Whilst surfing rather keenly for pictorials and literatures to further support my recent subjective campaign against “acronym abuse”,I coincidentally came upon this masterpiece which says all I have ever wanted to say!

Hmm
God bless your intuition Mister Lolo
I hope my young self would see many more of your works